


grievances

by narukamiyu



Category: JUDGE EYES: 死神の遺言 | Judgment
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narukamiyu/pseuds/narukamiyu
Summary: A few months after Hamura's arrest, Yagami suggests that they pay him a visit.
Kudos: 6





	grievances

**Author's Note:**

> a comm written for a friend. thank you for your support!
> 
> when I say "spoilers" i mean Big Spoilers like who the mole is and all that jazz. man these characters have so much to unpack

Yagami wasn’t sure why his friends thought it was a good idea to huddle up for fun in his cramped little office of all places. Even with the supposed privacy that it offered, surely there were better places to hang out. 

“It wouldn’t have the same vibes,” Sugiura muttered in response, and what was  _ that  _ supposed to mean? Yagami shook his head and moved past him to his desk since Kaito was already sprawled out on the couch. 

“Well, it’s good that you guys are here anyway. I wanted to talk to you about something.” Yagami sat forward in his chair, not entirely sure how they’d react to the suggestion he had in mind.

Sugiura put away his phone and looked at him with raised brows. “That sounds serious. Are we in trouble?” he asked, half-jokingly.

“No, but Kaito will be if he doesn’t get his shoes off the furniture.” Yagami shot a pointed look at his friend, who just shrugged, completely unrepentant. 

“Not like I’m the only one who does it. What were you gonna tell us?”

Mafuyu had mentioned something interesting when the two of them had met up for lunch. Hamura was finally able to take visitors, two months after he’d turned himself in and testified against Ichinose. Of course, he’d met with others prior to this point — it was to be expected, considering the position that he’d held. But now that they were all allowed to speak to him outside of an official investigation… 

“How would you feel about going to see Hamura?”

The silence that filled the room was less judgmental and more contemplative, which he appreciated. No one here, including Yagami, actually liked Hamura. He was well aware that seeing him again would likely dredge up some hostile feelings. Yagami looked between his two friends, trying to gauge their reactions. Sugiura was hard to read, but he didn’t look opposed to the idea. Across from him, Kaito had crossed his arms with a grimace.

“You think it’ll give us closure or something?” Kaito sighed. “Well, I can’t say you’re completely wrong. But we should bring Higashi with us. He deserves a chance to rip into him just as much as we do.”

Yagami had already figured that they would be bringing him along. They honestly wouldn’t have gotten as far in their investigation without Higashi, and it wouldn’t be fair to leave him out of such an important meeting. “I’ll ask him to meet us there at noon.”

The other two nodded in agreement, and their impromptu gathering ended for the night.

* * *

Even through the glass, the effect of Hamura’s sour look wasn’t diminished at all. “Well, isn’t this a familiar scene?” he snarked at them. Yagami tried to ignore the enmity in the air and took the single chair in the room. 

“I’d say you got what you deserved, ending up here again,” Kaito said from behind him. Hamura didn’t seem to have a response for that, which Yagami found oddly satisfying. But the result was an awkward silence that he suddenly didn’t know how to fill. Where had all of his questions gone?

As it turned out, Hamura was the one with questions. He cleared his throat and sat back in his chair, trying to appear unaffected but failing. “What’s become of the Matsuganes?” 

Yagami supposed they could begrudge him that answer. It must have been some time since anyone gave him an update. He glanced at Higashi, who cleared his throat. “It’s...well, it’s a mess. For a while, I didn’t know if we would make it through this. But now it looks as if Ozaki is stepping up to take charge.”

“I see.” Hamura didn’t say anything more, and Yagami couldn’t tell what he was thinking. How did he feel, knowing that everything he’d done for the family had almost caused its downfall? But remembering Matsugane-san’s dying face, Yagami couldn’t really find the heart to pity him.

He heard Sugiura move away from the wall that he’d been leaning against. “Did they give you a life sentence? You pretty much admitted to everything about working with Kuroiwa and Shono.”

Before Hamura could answer, Yagami shook his head. “He made a deal in exchange for testifying. They’re still working out the details, but I doubt he’ll be in here forever.”

“Talking about me as if I’m not present? I didn’t take you to be so rude, Tak.” Hamura didn’t  _ actually _ sound put-off or deny the claim, so he figured that he’d hit the nail on the head. It was distasteful to know that he might be getting a relatively light sentence after everything he’d done.

Kaito seemed to be the same train of thought. He pushed forward past Yagami, as if he’d be able to punch Hamura through the glass if he got close enough. “You know the part you played in Matsugane-san’s death. You might as well have killed him yourself!” 

Hamura’s chair screeched against the floor as he hauled himself to his feet. His face was twisted with anger, enough to match Kaito’s own. “You think I wanted him to die? Kuroiwa was out of control, and Boss wasn’t supposed to…” He took a deep breath before leveling them a challenging glare. “He wasn’t supposed to get in the way.”

Before Kaito could snap, Sugiura grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the glass. “I get that you’re mad. I really do. But if we don’t calm down, they’re going to kick us out of here.”

Kaito obviously wasn’t happy about the warning, but he took a few steps back. Once Hamura had taken his seat again, a tense silence followed, only broken by Higashi shuffling forward from where he’d been quietly standing. He seemed a little unnerved by Hamura’s presence, but there was still a determined glint in his eyes. “Yagami and the others told me what you said, but I want to hear it from your own mouth. Why did you work with the Mole? With Shono and his group?”

Hamura’s lips thinned at the question. “I don’t owe you another explanation. I have nothing new to tell you. I said I did it all for the family, and that’s the truth. Things just...got out of hand along the way.”

Kaito clearly had his own opinion about that, but he was keeping it to himself for now. Instead of facing Hamura, he placed a hand on Yagami’s shoulder. “Tak, aren’t you mad? I know you have a better temper than me, but even you’ve gotta be fucking pissed about this.”

Yagami wanted to be angry, to be able to say that he would do anything in his power to ensure that Hamura paid for his crimes for the rest of his life. But all he could think about was the sight of Matsugane-san’s body surrounded by flames, and he suddenly felt more exhausted than anything. “He blamed himself, you know. For the family’s troubles.” He wished that he hadn’t died believing that — or rather, hadn’t died at all, as childish as that might be.

There was an uncomfortable shift in the room. Hamura’s gaze was somewhere far away, and for once, Yagami knew that the two of them were seeing the same thing. From behind him, he heard Higashi mutter a somber “But why…?”

Hamura’s arms were crossed, though Yagami wasn’t sure whether he was being defensive or dismissive. “Our finances were a disaster, and there was no way it’d get any better if Kaito took over.” 

“So you thought it would be better to kick me out and take charge yourself,” Kaito said darkly. No matter what Kaito said about being fine where he is, Yagami knew that a part of him would always be bitter — not at Higashi, who he’d been trying to save, but at the man who had used them both so callously. 

Hamura gritted his teeth but seemed to be restraining himself. “I have nothing more to say to you. I admit that I regret the Boss’s death, but whining about it won’t bring him back. I don’t know what I could have done differently.”

“You could have, oh I don’t know, told us who the Mole was earlier?” Sugiura pointed out incredulously. He made a good point; no matter what Hamura said about being cornered by Shono, there were ways that he could have handled the situation better. 

But at this point, it was clear that Hamura had no intention of listening. He gave all of them a flat look before turning away as if to leave. “Are we done here? I don’t have time to waste arguing with you about the past.”

“Like you have anything better to do right now?” Kaito shot back, grunting when Higashi not-so-gently nudged him. Yagami stood up to join the rest of his friends near the door, not bothering to look back at Hamura. There was no point in drawing out the meeting when he was being like this. 

Outside the room, the others appeared as uncomfortable as he felt. It definitely didn’t feel anything like closure. So Yagami was taken aback when Higashi clasped his shoulder and muttered a “thank you” before departing. He glanced at Kaito, who shrugged.

“He’s got some shit to work through. Not that I can blame him, considering the state that the family is in thanks to Hamura.” He scowled. “No way I can agree with what he did, even if it was all for them.”

“You gonna go talk to him?” Yagami asked, nodding at the exit. Higashi couldn’t have gone far. 

Kaito let out what could almost be taken as a huff of laughter before taking off after him. “See you back at the office. Thanks for arranging this.”

Yagami watched him go with a frown. “They don’t need to thank me for this. I mean…”

“It could have gone better, yeah. But they must have gotten  _ something _ out of it, even though it might not look that way.” Sugiura stared at the door that they’d just crossed, as if he could still see Hamura sitting past the glass. “Did anything change for you?”

Yagami thinks about the look in Hamura’s eyes, the regret in them palpable even as he blustered past the immutability of Matsugane-san’s death. He wonders if there will ever be anything he can understand about Hamura.

“I don’t know yet,” he says instead. That’s something to think about later, when his emotions aren’t roiling around in his stomach and he doesn’t have potential clients to pay attention to back at the office.


End file.
